The Italian textile machinery industry warms up for the ITMA Asia + CITME exhibition in Shanghai. This year the Italian contingent is one of the largest to attend the show. In fact, there will be 117 textile machinery manufacturers and the products are characterised by the completeness of the range and by the maximum attention paid to the efficiency and sustainability of the technology presented. From spinning to weaving, from knitwear to finishing, visitors from all over Asia will be able to see the high technological level of ‘Made in Italy’.
“China is our top market in the world“, stressed Sandro Salmoiraghi, President of ACIMIT, the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers. “In 2011, we sold Euro 450 million worth of textile machinery to Chinese companies (or 25% of our export business)”.
Despite the difficult economic situation of recent years, the Chinese textile and clothing sector has continued to invest in Western technology, especially in Italian technology. With annual growth of six per cent over the last five years, Italy is the third largest supplier to the Chinese market.
“The demand from Chinese companies is increasingly more sophisticated. In China, our customers need a qualitative upgrade in the machinery they use. Efficiency, cost reduction and environmental sustainability are issues which come up time and again in negotiations for machinery sales in China”, Salmoiraghi added.
The ACIMIT “Sustainable Technologies” project, already presented at ITMA Barcelona last September, moves in this direction. The green label, placed on the machinery made by companies participating in the project, represents transparency of operation.
The label contains some fundamental information on efficiency and environmental sustainability such as, for example, the machinery’s carbon footprint. At the ACIMIT press conference which will be held in Shanghai, the Association will introduce a further development of the project, which is the certification of the green label. At a time when sustainability is often used solely for marketing purposes, ACIMIT, by certifying its green label, gives even more substance to a project in which over 30 Italian companies have already subscribed and are wholeheartedly participating.
ACIMIT represents an industrial sector comprising around 300 companies employing close to 12,400 people and producing machinery for an overall value of about 2.7 billion euros, with exports amounting to 80 per cent of total sales. The quality of Italian textile technology is evidenced by as many as 130 countries in which Italian machinery is sold. Creativity, technology, reliability and quality are the characteristics which have made Italy a global leader in the manufacture of textile machinery.
For details, visit: www.acimit.it.